


Will of Fire

by WhisperingDarkness



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, Naruto
Genre: F/M, Kagome in Konoha, Pre-Shippuden, Shinobi, Snapshots, Stalking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-29
Updated: 2014-11-29
Packaged: 2018-02-15 06:39:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2219586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhisperingDarkness/pseuds/WhisperingDarkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kagome was a lot more used to adapting to strange, even frightening, situations than most people. And it seemed that she was stuck here, wherever here was, for now. There was nothing for it but to make the best of it. And really, these shinobi weren't that different from demon slayers, perverted monks or youkai. Series of connected one-shots and vignettes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Care

 

# Will of Fire

 

* * *

 

 He had gotten used to the small, careful hands that cared for his injuries and helped him eat and drink. This was the worst case of chakra exhaustion he had ever experienced and he never remembered feeling this weak, this vulnerable. But whenever he tried to move, to get up and gather information about where he was, those gentle hands pushed him back down and a soft voice murmured tender admonishments and reassurances.

And then, again, he would give in - for once too weak and too tired to fight - and his world would remain this warm cocoon.

Slowly consciousness started to fight against sleep and he managed to catch a few glimpses of his caretaker; warm pools of a soft blue sea and long dark hair.

The world was still out of focus, but as light started to win from the sheltering darkness, he recognized that he was in a small windowless hut, he realised that the warm liquid she fed him was a light soup and that the words she spoke had a strange accent.

And, exhausted, he fell back into sleep.

\---

“Kagome, Kagome!”

She smiled at the pair of excited children; “Good morning Aya, Yuki.”

They giggled and took hold of her hands. “Look!” She allowed them to tug her to a tiny house, a dolls-house, made of twigs, dirt and leaves.

She listened attentively as they chattered about the little creatures that would live there and how they had made it all by themselves.

“Do you like it?” the eager smiles on both their faces were like small twin suns.

“It’s wonderful.” she told them, honestly.

After a while she reluctantly pulled herself away from the children, who had been the only people in this village who had welcomed her when she came here, lost and alone. She explained that she had to go and granted them one last soft smile before continuing on her way.

She had a little money, most of it gained from making herbal remedies (she was good at that, thanks to Kaede’s occasional lessons and her own experiences in the Feudal Era) and some of it she had earned with an odd job here and there.

She visited the few small shops this village had, careful not to spend her money on things she didn’t really need. Rice, this season’s vegetables, a small piece of meat. She could hear the locals talking about her, could feel their eyes on her as she walked past: some glanced at her with curiosity, but most of them muttered with disapproval. As a Miko who had travelled with youkai, she was used to this. She ignored them all.

When she got back to her little hut - built on the very outskirts of the village - she stood outside for a moment, taking a deep cleansing breath and gazing back at the village that had been her home for the last month or so.

And then she sees them; a group of villagers approaching her hut, and she recognizes the fear, covered by anger in their gazes. When it was just her, a strange, but harmless outsider their faces had held but a slight dislike, a hint of caution. But now, with that odd man in her care… she had seen this storm brewing and knew that it was about to break.

A soft sigh escaped her lips and she fought to urge to pretend this wasn’t happening and retreat back into her hut. For all her involvement in fights alongside Inuyasha and her other friends in the Feudal era, she had never been one to seek out confrontations. She didn’t like fights or arguments. She didn’t like to see people, or even youkai, hurting each other.

But she also wasn’t the type of person who let others push her too far, as Inuyasha and that bead around his neck could confirm. So she put down her groceries, straightened her back and waited.

\---

The sound of raised voices woke him immediately. He could hear the anger in them, mixed with fear and what _could_ be hate and his body tensed as he readied himself for possible danger.

He took quick stock of his body; his wounds were healed, but his chakra was practically non-existent and his body paid the price for that as well. Physically, he knew that right now he was even weaker than most civilians. But he had his own advantages. Even weaker than them, he could, would still win if it came to a fight: it didn’t take much strength to throw a kunai, just skill and focus. And when it came down to it, he had both, no matter what state he was in.

Now only if his kunai weren’t missing.

Quickly, he scanned the small hut, searching for a weapon. They landed on a pouch, half hidden under an orange blanket, in the opposite corner of the room.

It was familiar. It was his.

Every step that he took seemed to drain him completely, but he kept moving, ignoring the tiredness and pain flooding his body. Carefully he bent down and grasped his kunai pouch.

A burst of gratitude filled him when he realised that it was filled. He took one of them out and despite his utter weakness, the familiar cold steal of his own weapon strengthened his confidence. He was a shinobi. He didn’t need chakra, jutsu, or even physical strength to fight.

Not when he had his own kunai in his hands.

Now, less worried about possible enemies, he tried to asses the situation. He focussed on the voices outside. They were civilians, he realised immediately as some of the words filtered through to his mind. And they weren’t pleased with the presence of a shinobi in their village.

He relaxed his grip on the kunai slightly. It was obvious that these people feared him and shinobi like him. That meant that despite their desire to be rid of him, they probably wouldn’t actually dare to try and harm him. Leave him to his fate, perhaps, but no more than that.

He sat back down on the improvised futon he had slept on, tired by the exertion. But, though he allowed his body to slump, the kunai remained in his hand. Vulnerable as he was, he couldn’t afford to trust in just the villagers’ fear of retribution to keep him safe.

And then he heard it: a familiar female voice that calmly answered the cascade of angry ones. He remembered that voice, had heard it often over the last days, weeks, however long it had been… that soft voice, along with a pair of gentle hands, had been his only companions.

As the villager’s accusations and threats grew harsher, her gentle warmth and soft assurances of safety retreated bit by bit until he expected them too be stamped out completely into silence.

Instead, that soft warmth burst into flame.

He had believed her a sweet-tempered, soft-hearted soul who had taken pity on him. He had been wrong.

Because the woman who spoke now was neither soft nor sweet. Her temper flared brightly and as the villagers demanded he was cast out from their village - it caught fire.

It was odd, to hear a stranger speak up in his defence. It was, perhaps even stranger, to hear a young woman, a _civilian_ speak so passionately about their duty to one another, about caring for their own, whether they are shinobi or not.

It was astounding that, so far from Konoha, on the very border of Fire country, he would meet someone whose very soul embodied their Will of Fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm... it seems I forgot to upload this story to AO3.
> 
> Anyway, I didn’t name the shinobi here because it really could have been a number of people. Naruto has such an interestingly large cast of characters! So I like that this chapter has the potential for a different continuation as well… And, as usual, this was a one-shot at first so a name wasn't necessary.


	2. Alone

Kakashi had been a shinobi from a very young age. He had been a weapon for his village, had learned what it meant to be a part of a team, had lost people dear to him to people like him. 

And he had perfected his mask; a careful nonchalance, an unflappable, oblivious attitude.

Most of his emotions stayed behind that mask, not amusement or mocking, no, but emotions that could leave you vulnerable, that given time, could break even the strongest of men: fear, pain and just how deeply he _cared_. 

And, maybe that had been a large part of his mistake. 

Perhaps, if he had shown his students more of himself - had given them more of himself - their little team would have been stronger for it and he would not have been left alone while all three of his students became students to the Sannin instead. Perhaps he wouldn’t have lost Sasuke to his thirst for revenge, perhaps he would have been able to guide Naruto on the path of becoming a better ninja, perhaps Sakura could have flourished under _his_ teachings as well.

But that chance was lost. Naruto had left with Jiraiya, Sakura was learning to become a medic-nin and Sasuke… Sasuke…

And he was alone. 

No longer fulfilling his role as a jounin-sensei, he was back to taking A or S ranked missions. Some of them with a team or partner, some of them alone. This was just another solo-mission, but on his way back…

Kakashi knew better than believing in the illusion of safety that the crossing of the borders might have signified to a greener shinobi. He had learned to expect the unexpected, so he hadn’t been caught off guard. But it was galling, to pull of a dangerous mission successfully only to be attacked by a different group of foreign shinobi _in his own country_.

And he stood, alone, against three foreigners, who had dared cross the borders into Fire Country and attack a Konoha shinobi.

This wouldn’t normally be a problem, but his mission had taken its toll on him so he hadn’t been at full strength even at the start, and they were decent fighters, not quite up to his level, but good.

Alone against three jounin, who were no where near as tired as he had been.

Alone, but he had won. 

Barely.

Afterwards, he had tried to make his way to where he remembered a village was supposed to be, but his vision had started swimming and eventually his legs couldn’t seem to hold up any longer and he had finally collapsed.

Now he was once again fighting to stay on his feet, to take just one more step, and then one more… keep going…

“Ano, Kakashi-san?”

Too tired to reply or to turn and face her he just staggered on. Until he walked into an obstacle. 

Automatically he stopped, and it took only a moment for him to identify what was holding him back: a small, sure hand.

“Hmm… I think we should take a little rest.” 

He blinked, surprised. And not _just_ because she was bold enough not to make that sound like a question, but an order. No, he was surprised that she had so casually dared to lay a hand on his chest. He was still a shinobi.

But he was in no state to protest. So he half-lay, half-sat against a tree, allowing his body the rest it craved while he saw and heard her gather twigs around him. She easily managed a small fire, which she used to prepare an herbal tea he had become familiar with during the short time he had consciously spent in her presence.

She was a strange person, this Kagome. A contradiction of soft and fierce that seemed as odd for a civilian as it would have been for a shinobi. Most civilians weren’t this open, this… _casual_ around shinobi. Even the villagers of Konoha, who were used to their presence, still retained a hint of cautiousness around them. 

The people of her own village weren’t used to ninja. The only times such an out of place village, on the edge of Fire Country, would have been frequented by shinobi was during times or preparations of war. 

And war was never kind or pretty. It always left death, blood, pain and emptiness in its wake.

To the people of her village shinobi meant danger and violence and they had wanted nothing to do with any of that. And because they had never had much contact with Konoha, they didn’t see how the fact that they were still officially a part of Fire Country meant that they owed him – as one of Konoha’s shinobi – their aid. It wasn’t uncommon for civilians to be ungrateful for the sacrifice their country’s shinobi make for them. They wanted their protection without having anything to do with them. To be honest, by now, he was cynical enough that it barely made him blink. 

He had been told to leave and hadn’t fought them on it. It wasn’t worth getting into a physical fight over, not while they were still Fire Country civilians and he a loyal Konoha shinobi. And if they truly wanted him gone, he couldn’t afford to stay. Not in a village that might wish him harm if he refused to leave. Not while he was vulnerable and alone.

Then she had quietly informed him she would come with him. And Kakashi had protested, unwilling to admit that he needed the help. Besides, even after days spent vulnerable, barely conscious in her care, he couldn’t help but remain cautious. But she had insisted that since _her_ village had turned him away in such a weakened state and because he had been in _her_ care ever since she found him, she would take responsibility and help him get home. 

“Here.” A warm brew was gently pressed against his hand.

A small nod was all he gave her in return when he accepted the tea. He had barely spoken to her, especially about himself. She knew only his name and that he was a shinobi from Konoha. 

He was a stranger to her.

He guarded himself closely, his weakened state making him reluctant to talk, afraid to give something away and leave him even more vulnerable to her. Thankfully, she allowed him his silence, and asked him only about directions or his opinion on where to make camp. 

In the evening, over a scarce but warm meal, she would tell him with her soft, gentle voice about how Yuki had taken a frog home one day and how the boy’s parents hadn’t realised it until the following day, when the animal had wandered off from Yuki’s improvised little frog-bed and ended up in his parent’s bedroom. Or she would speak of a friend called Sango, who had tried to teach her how to defend herself and how their first lesson ended with both of them falling into a nearby creak due to her clumsiness.

The stories she told him were always light-hearted. Little anecdotes that she told with fondness and a slight longing, but that never touched on anything serious.

She was still a stranger to him as well.

With a sigh he got to his feet again. At this pace his return journey would be a long one. It would be a while before he saw those welcoming gates of Konoha again.

But, strangers or not, for now he was just grateful that he was not making that journey alone.


	3. Imperfect

He was rather… _odd_.

Obviously, Kagome had never met a shinobi before him. She had only been in this world for a few months and had stayed in the first village she had come across. It was a small, out of the way village, so she hadn't actually had much of a chance to meet a ninja. But she had heard about them. The villagers spoke about them as the people in the Feudal age spoke about youkai: with prejudice, a fair bit of superstition and most of all fear. As far as she could tell, they were the fighting forces of their country, with special skills. The closest she could compare them with were the demon hunters like Sango.

She had been out gathering herbs when she had found the silver-haired man bleeding and unconscious not too far from the village. At first, it hadn’t really occurred to her that he was one of the shinobi the people in her village whispered about. He had looked like a fighter, that much had been obvious, from his clothing, his wounds and his hidden weapons. But all that she had really paid attention to was the fact that he was hurt and needed help.

When the villagers learned about his presence, she in turn, learned more about shinobi. They vehemently warned her how dangerous they were and about their unnatural skills. 

Instead of making her fear him, it only made him seem more familiar. Someone to be wary of, perhaps, but no more than that. After all, she had also learned that these shinobi were similar to soldiers. And the symbol on his headband showed that he was a ninja of their own country. 

In a sense he was a soldier who was supposed to protect, not harm, the people of her village. Of course, Kagome knew that reality could fall far from what someone was _supposed_ to be. But it was still a rather comforting thought.

The villagers didn’t fear him because he was an enemy, but because he was different, and therefore, in their eyes dangerous. But the idea of what these shinobi could do wasn't that strange to _her_. That they could use chakra to enhance their body and do 'jutsu' – something that the villagers had likened to dangerous magic – wasn't out of the realm of what she considered possible. After all, as a miko, she used her spirit energy as well. From what she could tell their chakra was a bit different; a mixture of spiritual energy and physical strength. 

Different, but not _unnatural_. Youkai could use youki, miko could use spirit energy, shinobi could use chakra. It seemed simple enough to her. 

Then again, perhaps Kagome was a bit more accepting of these things than most people, especially those from her own time. She had long since set aside such silly thoughts as 'but that's just not-possible' or 'there is no scientific way to explain this’ and learned to just go with it. 

A time-travelling well in her back yard. _Well that's just how it is, isn't it_?

The existence of youkai. _Couldn't argue with that while they were trying to kill her, now could she_?

A powerful jewel that had been inside her body and had shattered. _Yes that was a problem, but it had obviously happened so why deny the truth_?

She hadn’t been able to afford taking the time to be amazed, confused or even afraid. Instead she had needed to step up, own up to her mistakes and take responsibility. The Shikon no Tama had been inside _her_ body and it had been, mostly, _her_ fault that it had been shattered. So it became her duty to gather the shards before they could to further harm.

And she had met some strange individuals along the way. Inuyasha was a hanyou, Shippou her sweet little mischievous fox-kit, Sango a demon slayer who had teamed up with a Neko Youkai, and Miroku a perverted monk.  
Each and everyone of them completely unique and some of them a walking contradiction.

It took a lot to surprise her. Like when Shesshmarou had adopted a human girl. But even surprises like those faded quickly. She accepted the facts, the change in a situation and just… went with it.

And yet, despite all of her experiences with strange people, Kakashi was still rather… _odd_. 

For some reason, Kagome just couldn't quite get a grasp on him.

He was slippery, like water flowing through her hands. With far more going on underneath the surface than she could see.

The silent figure that had been both vulnerable and fierce as he fought to keep walking had retreated as his strength returned, leaving behind a person that was both easygoing and infuriatingly vague or deliberately casual.

Yes, he was a rather strange person, this Kakashi. She had seen glimpses of the shinobi in him. After the utter exhaustion had left his posture, he had helped catching fish or game for their dinner. A flick of his wrist and one of those kunai would bring down an animal she had not even known was there. And although he slumped and walked with exaggerated casualness, there was a predatory grace to his movements that betrayed a hidden strength and an awareness of his surroundings.

As they continued on, he reminded her more and more of a taiyoukai in their humanoid form: someone who was not even fully sure _himself_ how much of the appearances were a mask and how much was meant to cover something deeper.

No, she couldn't completely figure him out, but that didn't matter. When she didn't know or understand just what it was that was lurking behind his one-eyed smile she just shrugged and took him at face-value.

And at face value he turned out to be a rather pleasant travelling companion.

He had taken charge of their little group of two once he was able to muster up the strength for more than just walking. But he wasn't as insistent or overbearing as Inuyasha could sometimes be. And although she was sure that he wasn't nearly as laid back and relaxed as he pretended to be, she rather appreciated the thought that he was on guard for any attack. 

Even if that meant that he might also secretly be guarding himself from her. 

By now, Kagome was too practical to let something like that bother her. Yes, the man was probably a little paranoid. And maybe he had his reasons to be. But she didn’t mean him harm, and he hadn’t hurt her, and his paranoia could only prove to be a good thing if someone _did_ try to attack them. No harm, no foul.

And thankfully, they no longer travelled in near silence anymore. Their conversations were mostly casual, but enough to keep their travels from being boring. Sometimes, Kakashi reciprocated her little evening-stories with vague anecdotes of his own. Most of them were amusing, some were merely strange and others, she suspected, were meant to either shock her or leave her wondering.

She had seen and heard too much to be shocked easily by any of his stories. 

He had told her nothing of the mission that brought him so far from his village, besides the fact that his book had been utterly destroyed in some sort of fight. Vague as he was about the fights, his enemies and what he was doing wherever it was in the first place, he waxed lyrically about the book. Apparently he loved it so much that he had several copies, but he still spoke of what a dramatic loss this was to him. Finally he concluded his story with a vivid description of its contents that was surely meant to embarrass her. Instead, it made her giggle when she thought of how he might get a long with Miroku. He tried to frighten her with some of his stories too; matter-of-fact recollections of death and destruction and blood spilled by his hand. And although these stories removed the smile from her face they left behind not fear of him, but sympathy as she started to understand what a shinobi did for his country.

And mile by mile she collected more and more pieces of the puzzle that was Kakashi, never quite getting the whole picture as some of the pieces were broken or seemed to belong to a different puzzle all together.

She didn't really care that the pieces didn’t fit.

Nothing was ever perfect anyway.


	4. Konoha

Kagome had only been in Konoha for two days, but she already liked the village. It was warm and welcoming and yet also cautious in a sense. The children and the restaurant and shop owners were very friendly, but the shinobi were like slight shadows: they seemed to be constantly observing people from a distance – even if they were right beside them. At least, that was the feeling Kagome got from them… In a sense, they were as wary of outsiders as the village she had just come from.

Still, even though the shinobi were not exactly friendly towards her, she could recognize the ease with which they interacted with each other. There was no hesitation there, in letting one of their comrades at their back.

The civilians were a strange contrast to that. Everyone she had met had been happy to greet her and open in their manner. They seemed to be more wary of their own protectors than of her. 

It was a strange balance, and at times it seemed that the civilian population and the ninja co-existed more than they co-operated. But somehow, Kagome had the feeling that in times of danger, where normally the tensions already existing between people had a tendency of erupting, Konoha would be as one. She could almost sense that undercurrent of… _togetherness_ that was there despite any misgivings on the surface. No, this village would not break apart easily – instead it would draw together as one.

Or maybe that was just her own positive thinking? 

Still, she was sure that there must be something holding this village together as one, because these shinobi and civilians were living together here. They were different in many ways and yet, _somehow_ it worked.

Despite the friendliness of most of the villagers Kagome hadn’t really found a place for herself yet. The village in which she had lived when she had found Kakashi-san was less friendly than this one, but she had been able to be herself there, to be a Miko and help the villagers with her skills in healing. But Konoha already had a hospital, so there was probably no need for a skilled, but never officially trained healer. So instead of going there, she had been walking around the large village, just getting a _feel_ for it.

And it felt warm, firm, interesting and most of all, brave.

It felt like a good village to live in.

But Kagome wasn’t just a normal civilian. She wasn’t looking for a nice house or a good job. She was a girl from a different time and space. 

Most of all, she was a Miko. And even if there were no youkai here, in this world - she was still supposed to help, heal and protect humanity. It was by now, a part of who she was and not something she could stop doing. Even when she had just ended up here and realised just how far from either of her homes she really was, Kagome had still looked out for the people she had met and done what she could.

Even as lost as she was, when Kagome had come to the small, border-village, she had felt that it was her responsibility to help the people there as much as she could. Until a different responsibility was laid out at her feet. 

Or; was crumpled in a bloody mess on the forest floor where she gathered herbs - if you want to be technical about it. 

Either way, she couldn’t just let Kakashi-san travel on his own in the state he was in, shinobi or not. So she had come with him, had seen her new responsibility through to the end – to the large, impressive gates of this proud village.

A village with open doors, warm smiles, assesing eyes and shadowed corners.

Slowly, as she walked around, Kagome was getting to know that village. She was watching it, learning it. House by house, person by person, street by street, she was getting to know Konoha.

Because this village already had healers, helpers and protectors and she needed to know...

...if there was a place for her here.


	5. Watching

Kakashi would never admit it, but he wasn’t sure if he had been disappointed or relieved when they finally reached Konoha. He had half-heartedly introduced Kagome to the chuunin guards at the gate and left her there without another word. Not because he was in any real rush to give the Hokage his mission report but mostly because he wanted to see what she would do. Most people would have been angry, would have viewed his sudden disappearance as ungrateful, rude and perhaps even cruel. But he had long since learned that Kagome was anything but the usual civilian.

So he wasn’t surprised when he had watched – hidden, with what little chakra he had suppressed - as she shook her head with a strange fondness and not a single trace of annoyance, and introduced herself more politely to the two men at the gate. They waved her through easily enough – not that he had expected them to give her any trouble, she was a civilian and he had more or less vouched for her, just by coming here with her – and he had stuck around to see her get her first real glimpse of Konoha. 

Her blue eyes roved over the people and buildings, softly touching on the more damaged parts, shining warmly upon the sight of children playing ninja and tracing even the most shadowy corners. She took in all of his village - every single part good or ill - and for a moment he wondered just what exactly she saw.

But he was not the type of person who would ask. 

So instead he left to give his mission report to the Hokage – where he did his best to downplay his chakra exhaustion and write his late arrival off as laziness and perverted indulgement instead. ‘Maa, if the hospital had such cute, gentle nurses here I wouldn’t be so eager to leave.’ 

He was pretty sure she didn’t buy any of it, but he hadn’t been called on it so he considered it a win none-the-less.

Even though Kagome had helped him heal, and had helped him here, he didn’t return to her after his visit to the Hokage Tower. Instead he left her to her own devices – to find her own way in Konoha and her own place to sleep – because Kakashi wasn’t good at holding anyone’s hand, not even his (former) students and for all that he had gotten, if not fond of, then at least used to her presence, he wouldn’t want her invading his own private space. 

Leaving a civilian from such an out of the way village to her own fate in a shinobi village might seem like a cruel thing to do, but he was sure that she was smart enough not to do anything suicidal, like get in a fight with a shinobi or wander onto a training field. No, if the journey here had taught him anything about her it was that she wasn’t easily offended and that she could take care of herself.

So he went home without a care. 

He was actually rather grateful that Tsunade had seen through his act enough to insist on giving him two weeks off. Actually, he rather suspected she had cheated and used a medical jutsu to examine him… 

With practice he managed to ignore the implied insult to his ego that if he was weak enough that he hadn’t even sensed that, than he actually _needed_ those two weeks to recover fully.

Instead he merely appreciated the thought of a little vacation time.

\---

He hadn’t exactly planned on spending that vacation time following his new acquaintance (he wasn’t sure just _what_ she was to him but that wasn’t really relevant anyway) around, but somehow checking up on her the next morning (well, early afternoon) had turned into stalking her for most of the day. And the day after that. And so on.

Kakashi just wasn’t sure what to think of her, that strange civilian with a will of fire who had supposedly accompanied him here for _his_ sake. To help _him_ , a complete stranger and a shinobi at that. She had taken care of him, healed him to the best of her ability and defended him against the others in her village. And when they wanted to sent him on his way she insisted in no uncertain terms that she would come with him and she _did_ , without even looking back.

He supposed it wasn’t that strange. There _were_ selfless people in this world, those who helped strangers not out of duty or self-interest but simply because they could. But Kakashi had been a shinobi since he was five years old and was a lot better acquainted with the darker sides of people. Even inside these village walls and even amongst comrades, genuine, selfless kindness wasn’t much seen out in the open. It was kept hidden, like any other vulnerability, and was seen only in a harsher form of concern shown in an exchange of nods or in-between the lines of friendly bantering. 

He would never expect kindness from a stranger – the life of a shinobi was too harsh to expect anything to come for free. And yet, she was strange and genuine enough that all of it _felt_ true. Nothing he saw suggested otherwise, but Kakashi had always been a paranoid bastard and people had a habit of letting him down. 

Or perhaps it was him who had a habit of letting them down. 

Either way, those who came close to him always, _always_ fell away from him in the end.

So he kept his distance. He trailed her, keeping an eye on the young woman who had left everything behind just to ensure his well-being and waited, for what he wasn’t sure. 

While she wandered the village, he followed her on the rooftops, a new copy of Icha-Icha Paradise in his hand (he had truly missed his book - though he had made sure that the ninja who had destroyed it didn’t live to regret it for long). Still, his eye tended to slide down from his beloved reading material to that strange civilian who had been exploring Konoha for these past few days. 

During all this wandering, her eyes were always warm and welcoming, as well as assessing. There was no judgement there, but there was something deeper that he was having the most difficulty to define. The closest he could come was to say that she was perhaps looking for something. But that didn’t quite ring true. Her gaze was not searching enough – it flowed over everything, dismissing nothing as unimportant.

Her walks _seemed_ aimless. Her feet took her through every part of the village – from the hospital to the markets to the Hokage monument. She walked amongst civilians and shinobi alike, smiled at any who crossed her path, drinking in their presence. And yet, there was _something_ about her that told him that she was looking for something in particular – he just didn’t know what it was. 

And after three days, he was starting to suspect that _she_ didn’t know either.

Whether she found what she was looking for or not, after the fourth day she moved out of the hotel near the Hokage Tower (it was commonly used by clients) and settled in a district that had been hit hard by the Sound Invasion. It was not yet fully repaired even now - because this wasn’t one of the best parts of the village, not as rich as the more inner parts of the village, and not as prioritized as the main streets. Few shinobi lived here and the few who did, did not care enough about these people or buildings to waste their time and chakra helping their civilian neighbours out. Konoha had taken far larger losses than damaged buildings, after all.

Their Hokage had fallen and though Tsunade had both the name and the power to take his place with confidence, that strength would only go as far as the strength of the village did. Konoha could not afford weakness – a shinboi village never could – and these years after a costly victory were more important than most. So the Godaime worked them hard – missions by outside customers were _never_ refused and trivial missions on the inside took a back burner.

And so, in one of the worst parts of Konoha, the buildings remained in a less-than-perfect state. Usable, liveable, but only _just_. The people who lived there didn’t really seem to care much – they went about their days, head lowered, eyes forward, ignoring anyone else.

And this was the place that his travelling companion had decided to call home.

\---

Five days later he started to see what she had seen in this neighbourhood. The _potential_ , as well as the wounds that needed to be healed. The neighbourhood just needed a bit of help – a warm, helpful hand - and once more, Kagome seemed more than willing to provide it freely to everyone willing to give her a chance.

He watched as she carefully, gently made a place for herself in there. With her positive attitude and willingness to help she won over her new land-lady. Her warm smiles and genuine greetings to her neighbours were finally beginning to be returned. Softly, slowly, the people started to smile more frequently – that beaten down look disappeared from their eyes. 

Starting with the young, black-haired woman more and more people began fixing up their homes and those of their neighbours – helping each other in their own areas of expertise. 

Kakashi should have been surprised when the somewhat reclusive chuunin who lived on the third floor of one of these apartments actually joined in and helped with some of the more heavy lifting and precise cutting.

Seeing the bright, grateful thank you he received from Kagome – the one-eyed ninja really wasn’t.

By the time he was cleared for duty and left the village on another mission he couldn’t help but wonder just what this place would look like by the time he returned.

A part of him believed it might yet be one of the best neighbourhoods of Konoha by then.


	6. Sense

She could just about sense him. 

After weeks of just the two of them travelling together, it seemed she had grown familiar enough with his ‘feel’ to be able to tell when he was there. Even if he was completely hidden from sight.

She had never been able to tell if Sango was nearby, but after about a year of travelling with her Feudal Age friends, she had learned to identify the feel of Kirara’s, Shippo’s and Inuyasha’s youki and, later on, had started to recognize Miroku’s less obvious power signature, which had a hint of tainted darkness to it – probably because of his curse. 

Kakashi’s ‘feel’ was a bit like the man himself; a soft gentle hum, barely noticeable but undeniable there, with a spark of power hidden just underneath. 

And right now she could feel it, hovering just at the edges of her perception… lingering there like a ghostly touch on her skin.

It was driving her insane.

During their travels, she hadn’t minded his paranoia, his eye silently watching her. But here, in Konoha, his habit of watching her was less an acceptable show of paranoia, and more a disturbing instance of stalking.

She sighed and repressed the urge to glare at the place the man was hiding. As far as she could tell she could only sense him because of his chakra – and she had a feeling that something like this was not something people could normally do. Perhaps amongst these ninja, because she had seen them do some amazing things and heard of even more, but a civilian? No, she should not be able to tell where he was.

As paranoid as Kakashi was, he might not accept the explanation that she is a Miko, that it was her own special brand of spiritual energy that made her able to recognize his presence. And if he didn’t believe her, well that could be a problem. While she wasn’t exactly frightened of him, she knew better than to poke an irritable taiyoukai with a stick. The same could probably be applied to shinobi. Don’t aggravate a paranoid shinobi – she didn’t need to experience an unforgettable and probably unpleasant life-lesson to figure that one out.

Somewhere along the way she had finally learned that when dealing with unstable creatures, sometimes discretion was a better way to go.

So Kagome would just have to grin and bear it. With that thought she tried to shuffle the feeling to the back of her mind – let that warm hum fade into the background like Inuyasha’s had when he was staking out a tree nearby. 

She really hoped the man would grow bored soon.

\---  


Kagome kept up her wanderings despite having a silent guard. She looked at every part of this village until she found where she thought she needed to be. 

And when she found it, she started to slowly rebuild her life again – a new home, a new neighbourhood, new people and – new rules. Because she was starting to learn about life inside a shinobi city and it was different than anywhere else she had been. Different even than living and traveling amongst youkai, because there wasn’t exactly a handbook about how a Miko, or even any other human, should deal with a youkai’s strange habits and customs – and if there was such a handbook, Kagome was sure she wouldn’t approve of anything it said.

They’d all had to figure it out together. When to push, when to back off, when it was alright to invade each other’s space, and when a fragile human should stay away. When a growing youkai needed love and guidance and when he needed to discover things on his own. How far a human could walk before they tired, and when a youkai’s sense of smell grew irritated by a group of people who had gone days without a bath. Any unwritten rules they came up with were after trial and error.

But here, in this village, the unwritten rules were already there – they were the core of how these shinobi who lurked around danger and death with a casual indifference could live next door to civilians who feared these powerful ninja, and sometimes forgot that fear to a foolish extend.

And with each interaction she witnessed, Kagome learned. When a civilian crossed the line, she could see it in the shinobi they interacted with – tense muscles, sometimes even an aborted attempt to grasp a weapon. Or when a shinobi went too far, was reined in by comrades with a quick look or a touch, or by the surrounding civilians and the fear in their eyes. 

She didn’t know all the rules, but she was learning. And she was building a home. Not just for her, because she could tell that a lot of people around her needed a home too, even if they already had the house. This neighbourhood needed a little coaxing, a little gentle care, like a delicate herb that had just been repotted.

And that herb was all that Kagome had right now, so she tended to it with all of her being. That kept her busy enough that she didn’t really notice Kakashi anymore.

Until, suddenly she realised he wasn’t there.

Just like a background song that you didn’t really hear until suddenly the music stopped and the silence startled you.

The hum was gone and after all these days with the feeling warmly glowing in the very back of her mind, though she would never admit it to anyone, she felt a bit cold at the lack of it.

It took her three days to adjust to the ‘silence’ – when she could finally carry on with her daily life without noticing the lack of it.

Then, the very next day she felt the very same ‘song’ again.

When it stuck around for almost the entire day, Kagome didn’t know whether to smile with fondness or groan in despair. In the end she slapped her forehead, shook her head at herself and absently wondered what the watching ninja thought of that.


	7. Mask

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so this chapter is tiny. But not too introspective this time. Hey, actual dialogue! Yay!

Time passed and Konoha slowly started to feel a bit more like home. It was, at least, a more comfortable and interesting place for her to live than the village she had left behind when she decided to accompany the shinobi to his home.

Kakashi's presence slowly petered off a bit, and she wondered if the man had finally grown bored of his strange, somewhat disturbing hobby of watching her.

Then, out of the blue, he was right there in front of her, with an offer to treat her to lunch.

He had shown up with a pink-haired girl, who was abruptly introduced to her as Sakura, his student. While she was still bowing her greeting at Sakura-san, Kakashi started herding them to the ramen stand, not bothering to wait for her to actually accept (or refuse).

From the bewildered expression on the other girl's face, Kagome could come to the conclusion that the older ninja had somehow roped her into this too, instead of just  _asking_  her.

Kagome, by now used to Kakashi's odd, sometimes manipulative ways, went along with it happily enough. And when they were waiting for their orders, she quietly thanked him for the lunch, even if she was sure that there was more to it than simple kindness.

Lunch was lunch, after all. And Kakashi may be strange, but she didn't believe him to be purposely cruel. So Kagome wasn't too worried about the man's motives.

Sakura, at least, was nice enough, though she seemed somewhat off-balance by their sudden introduction. The younger girl recovered quickly though, and started a light, polite conversation.

Kagome gladly responded in kind, glad to have gained another acquaintance in this large village. She ignored the occasional strange looks Sakura-san kept shooting the quiet porn-reading shinobi. You would think that as his student she would have been accustomed to her teacher's particular branch of strange behaviour by now.

Despite what seemed to be an odd undercurrent between teacher and student, Kagome thought their lunch together was very comfortable. Though ramen had never been her favourite food, she enjoyed the familiar taste and the fond memories of Inuyasha they brought to mind.

And this ramen stand was a nice, welcoming place with well-prepared food. She noticed it had a nice assortment of customers of different ages, some of them where obviously civilians, but there were a few who might have been shinobi.

Most of the time, the ninja were easily recognized by their clothing, but not all of them displayed their village's symbol on their forehead, and the green vest that she had seen on many of them was also not worn by all. From a distance, Sakura didn't look like a shinobi, but it was obvious that she was one of them.

The only other person in this ramen stand that she was sure was one of the ninja was a well-composed man a few seats over.

Lunch was pleasant enough, even if Kakashi scarfed down his own bowl of ramen as quickly as possible, while the two of them were distracted by their own conversation. The man had also barely exchanged a few words with them. Maybe his motive behind this lunch was to introduce her to Sakura? That was a nice thought at least, so Kagome decided to go with that reasoning.

With a little wave of his hand and a one-eyed smile, the masked ninja left.

And the young woman next to her gave a soft groan in defeat.

The miko frowned, looking at her pink-haired companion with a hint of worry and a question in her eyes.

"I wanted to try and see under his mask." Sakura explained.

Kagome blinked at that rather strange explanation. "Oh."

Then she put a finger to her lips and thought it over. Maybe it was one of those girly, teenager things? She  _had_  noticed that the man was pretty good-looking when she had tended to him. Kagome was used to seeing very beautiful men, well youkai. But for Sakura, seeing someone like Kakashi without his mask might be more special?

There was, of course, also the simple explanation that the girl had a small crush on her teacher. "Ah. Well. He is rather handsome underneath that strange mask of his, isn't he?" she asked her new friend thoughtfully.

The pink-haired girl stared at her dumbly and Kagome wondered if she had surmised wrong.

She didn't notice the ninja further down from them, whom she earlier thought well-composed, choke on his food.


End file.
